-- It's another installment of the weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channels and Katy Perry is still on top.

Chart Toppers

Katy Perry's recent release of the lyric video to her latest single "Birthday" helped to net her channel over 59 million views on the week and keep it up in the #1 spot in the U.S. for its ninth week in a row. Next in the #2 position is once again DisneyCollectorBR. The online video collection of children's toys racked up over 46 million views on the week.

In the #3 spot is WWE Fan Nation. The YouTube destination for all things World Wrestling Entertainment maintained its position within the ring of the Top 5 with more than 32.4 million views on the week. Shakira comes in next at fourth place. The Voice judge's recent release of "Empire" is still getting plays and helped her channel end the week with more than 29.9 million views. And rounding out the U.S. Top 5 is TheFineBros, with more than 29.8 million views in the last seven days.

-- AwesomenessTV is the latest multi-channel YouTube network to ally itself with some of the most popular creators on Vine. AwesomenessTV founder Brian Robbins today announced a pair of new partners for his teen-focused network: Vine stars Nash Grier and Cameron Dallas.

Grier and Dallas are two of the most popular creators on Vine. Grier has a million more followers on Twitter's six-second video capture app than any other user-7.4 million in all-and Dallas is not far behind with 4.1 million followers of his own, which is good for ninth-best on the site.

Both Grier and Dallas have already established themselves on YouTube as well. Grier has 2.6 million subscribers, while Dallas counts nearly 1.9 million of them. The two teenagers often make videos together; their most recent YouTube collaboration is a sketch posted a few days ago on Grier's channel.

-- Three weeks after the nominees were first announced, the winners of the 2014 Webby Awards have been revealed. Within the online video categories, nobody won more than two awards in a diverse class of awardees.

The biggest online video winner was Freddie Wong, who will receive a Special Achievement Award at the Webby Awards ceremony on May 19th. Wong's trophy will honor his crowdfunding successes, his innovative web series work on Video Game High School, and his recent deal with Lionsgate, which "brings a new level of recognition and awareness to the potential of high-quality Web series," according to a Webby Awards press release.

Wong, however, was one of the few popular YouTube creators to score recognition from the Webbys. The online video awards tended to favor branded content campaigns like Chipotle's 'The Scarecrow' and Interlude's 'Like a Rolling Stone', traditional media voices like Jerry Seinfeld and Jamie Oliver, and top online comedy platforms like Funny or Die, CollegeHumor, and Cracked.

Other winners of multiple online video Webby Awards included TED, VICE, and Google+'s Same Sex Marriage campaign. The Webby winners in all 44 online video categories are listed below:

-- Five months after parting ways with My Damn Channel, Grace Helbig has teamed up with one of YouTube's biggest networks. The popular vlogger/comedienne/actress has partnered with Fullscreen in a deal that brings her channel to the top multi-channel network and media company.

Helbig left My Damn Channel after a five-year contract with the network expired and negotiations between the two sides fell through. My Damn Channel continues to post "classic" vlogs to the Daily Grace channel, but Helbig has since moved her YouTube presence to the It's Grace channel, which has accrued 1.7 million subscribers and 28 million views since the beginning of 2014.

Fullscreen will offer production support, channel representation, and brand integrations on the It's Grace channel. Helbig commented on her new partnership through a press release:

Three weeks after renewing four original series for second seasons, AOL has added to its library by debuting 12 new offerings. During its presentation at Digital Content Newfronts, AOL introduced its series one by one, with most of them accompanied by a well-known producer, director, or star.

Perhaps the biggest name involved in AOL's new content slate is James Franco. The actor and experimental filmmaker will mash-up famous movie scenes as part of a series called Making A Scene. Other celebrities joining Franco on AOL include Kevin Nealon, Zoe Saldana, and Steve Buscemi (whose Park Bench series was revealed four weeks before the Newfronts presentation).

AOL will also house one of the first projects from NewForm, a new digital studio created by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The two Hollywood heavyweights will collaborate for Inspired, in which celebrities will look back on moments that encouraged them to persevere beyond obstacles in their respective paths.

-- It's another installment of the Top 100 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels Worldwide and PewDiePie's channel is still the fastest growing on YouTube.

Chart Toppers

The honor of Most Subscribed YouTube Channel in March 2014 goes to Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg on behalf of PewDiePie. The repository of Let's Play videos that's now over 26 million subscribers strong added another 1.53 million subscribers in the 31 days of March. That's a 32% decrease in the channel's subscriber acquisition rate, but still more than enough total subs to put the channel way at the top of the chart.

Up next in a very distant second place is Katy Perry. Another nearly 0.87 million subscribers are now riding the international pop star's "Dark Horse". VanossGaming is in third place. The Canadian-based online video gaming destination scored an additional 0.70 million subscribers in the month of March. HolaSoyGerman follows next in the #4 position. The Chilean vlogger was just shy of racking up 0.70 million subscribers during the month.

And rounding out the Top 5 is fouseyTUBE. The online video prankster had a series of successful hits in March, which attracted another 0.67 million subscribers to his channel.

-- The Onion is continuing to expand its brand beyond the satirical publication that remains its strongest property. The comedy website turned digital media company has announced three new web series, all of which have specific targets in their crosshairs.

The Onion pitched its upcoming shows at an event that made fun of the pandering attitude that dominates Digital Content Newfronts. The main running joke can be summed up through the "quotes" from famous people that The Onion presented throughout its presentation.

Despite the jokey tone, The Onion presented actual content that resembled the sort of programming it has produced in the past. One of its new web series is Who's F**king, a crass parody of the New York Times' vows section. Who's F**king will combine the earnest romance of the NYT's love stories with vulgar descriptions of lewd sex acts.

The second parody series, on the other hand, is much less profane. Wonderverse is described as "a curiodyssey," which is Onion-speak for "a straightforward satire of Cosmos." Viewers can expect a frank delivery of ludicrous, inaccurate science "facts", and the overall tone may resemble The Onion's Extremely Accurate History of the Internet, a tech mockumentary that debuted on Yahoo Screen in 2012.

The final parody is also the most ambitious. On June 12th, The Onion will launch ClickHole, which makes fun of sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy by lampooning the misleading tactics they use to gain clicks. As with the real BuzzFeed, ClickHole will feature videos, such as "What This Adorable Little Girl Says Will Melt Your Heart," in which a cute child explains how your click just secured ad dollars for a sponsor.

-- Yahoo is looking to challenge Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu with a wave of half-hour comedies. At Digital Content Newfronts, it revealed the first two of these TV-quality series, including one from Freaks and Geeks creator and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig.

Feig will step behind the camera for Other Space, a sci-fi series "about a group of rookie space explorers who get trapped in an alternate universe." It will be co-run by producer Owen Ellickson (who worked with Feig on The Office) and will be the first TV series created by Feig since cult favorite Freaks and Geeks was cancelled 14 years ago. If previous reports are to believed, the show's budget will run in the millions.

The other TV-length original unveiled at Newfronts is Sin City Saints, a sports comedy from Arli$$, All That, and Smallville executive producer Michael Tollin. Tollin will team up with Chris Case and Brian Gordon to tell the story of an NBA expansion franchise based in Las Vegas with tepid results on the court and zany exploits off it.

-- Over the past few months, Xbox Entertainment Studios has revealed its first wave of original programming in dribs and drabs. At Digital Content Newfronts, Microsoft President of Entertainment Nancy Tellem and EVP of Programming Jordan Levin presented a handful Xbox originals, shedding light on a varied lineup of high-quality programs.

Xbox Studios' upcoming series are marked by their diversity. The company showed off trailers for a comedy, a sci-fi drama, an experimental romance, a reality competition, and a documentary series. These programs are brought to Xbox by an equally diverse group of producers, including Seth Green's Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the interactive wizards at Interlude, Academy Award winners Simon and Jonathan Chinn, and the UK's Channel 4.

Tellem and Levin's presentation also hinted at a number of upcoming additions to the Xbox lineup. JASH will dip its feet outside of YouTube with a half-hour variety program, while Steven Spielberg is still on track to executive produce a television series based on massively popular video game series Halo.

Here is a full list of the programs included in Xbox's Newfronts spiel:

-- In September 2012, BuzzFeed's online video presence was represented by a single channel claiming just under 10,000 subscribers. 18 months later, BuzzFeed's online video content has racked up more than a billion views across several channels. At a presentation at Digital Content Newfronts, BuzzFeed EVP of Video Ze Frank explained the secret sauce behind the company's rapid rise to online video prominence.

As with much of the company's content, BuzzFeed's web videos are heavily driven by social sharing. Frank noted that only 20% of the company's views come from subscribers, and only 15% come directly from BuzzFeed. Instead, videos are created to be "sharable" rather than "consumable", and BuzzFeed pays close attention to the statements that accompany social shares.

From this research, it has uncovered three general reasons why viewers share BuzzFeed videos: Some share videos that contain relevant to a subject they care about, some use shares to provide an "emotional gift" to friends, and others share videos that are relevant to personal identity. Frank explained that BuzzFeed is always searching for new share types by creating videos that call out certain groups.

-- The web series about nothing that stars the guy from the TV show about nothing is going to be around for at least a couple more years. At its Digital Content Newfronts presentation, Crackle announced four more seasons of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, bringing the show's total run up to nine seasons.

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee follows Seinfeld as he picks up his celebrity friends in classic cars and takes them out for a cup of joe and some conversation. The recently launched third season has been a commercial hit, bringing the series' total viewcount above 25 million. This success convinced Crackle to renew the series for a fourth and fifth season, which will both arrive in 2014.

In its latest announcement, Crackle has tacked four more seasons onto Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, which will combine to add at least 24 more episodes. As it has from the start, Acura will serve as the series' main sponsor.

Beyond its crown jewel, Crackle also pitched a number of new and returning series to the assembled advertisers. Particularly notable among its new originals are Tightrope, a parody of 1940s hard-boiled detective serials that is produced by Bryan Cranston, and Sports Jeopardy, an athletic version of the popular quiz show that will be hosted by Dan Patrick.

-- A few months before last year's Digital Content Newfronts, Conde Nast began the push its magazine brands onto YouTube, with GQ and Glamour serving as the first two properties to gain channels of their own. One year later, Conde Nast has announced the "second phase" of its digital expansion, which will include several new channels and a new curation platform.

At its 2014 Newfronts presentation, Conde Nast announced three more YouTube hubs based off its magazines. A Bon Appétit channel will join existing food destinations like Epicurious, The New Yorker will bring its distinct brand of literary culture to YouTube, and Lucky will make offer a new slate of content for shopaholics.

Conde Nast also announced The Scene, a new curation website that will present digital videos from a diverse group of partners. At launch, The Scene will feature content from ABC News, Buzzfeed, Major League Soccer, Variety, Weather Channel Films, Jash, and all of Conde Nast's existing channels.

"In just one year, CNÉ has set the industry standard for award-winning original video content that millions of influential millennials are watching and sharing," said Conde Nast President Dawn Ostroff. "The addition of The Scene, which will feature content from all of our powerful branded channels and premium digital videos from leading traditional and digital media companies, will increase our reach to entirely new audiences."

The last part of Conde Nast's expansion is a full lineup of original programs across its channels. Here are short descriptions for 27 of the network's new shows:

-- The Fine Bros are coming to Nickelodeon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the multi-talented YouTube duo are bringing their popular React concept to TV as a 13-episode series called ReactToThat.

Nickelodeon's interest in ReactToThat was first rumored back in February, when it was reported that Benny and Rafi Fine were working with Nick Cannon to produced a pilot. The Fine Bros then leveraged their fan base for a social media campaign meant to convince Nickelodeon to greenlight ReactToThat. The TV execs reportedly "got it," and so ReactToThat will debut later this year.

While the YouTube episodes of React are separated into Kids React, Teens React, Elders React, and YouTubers React, the TV show will feature "kids and teens together," according to The Fine Bros. There will also be a distinct reality show element, with reacting participants invited to complete specific challenges based on the videos they have watched. The result will be a show that Benny and Rafi claim will "not what you are used to seeing."

Jack Vale is the latest YouTube prankster to reach a million subscribers. A husband, father, practical joker, and Fullscreen partner, Vale has succeeded thanks to his appealing personality and his fearless execution. Here are his thoughts on his growing YouTube fame:

-- Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

-- Jack Vale: Humbling. YouTube has allowed me the platform to make a living doing the things I've always wanted to do. I'm grateful. I'll never take for granted the fact that I wouldn't be able to "prank for a living" without my fans...so to all of you who watch my videos, thank you.

-- TF: What is your favorite prank that you've released on YouTube?

-- JV: I have several so it's hard to say but if someone was holding a gun to my head, I'd pick the Social Media Experiments. It's always funny to watch people try and figure out how I know personal information about them. By the way...I can't imagine a scenario where someone would hold a gun to my head because this question was so important to them.

-- The most popular event of the Digital Content Newfronts-YouTube's annual Brandcast-took place on the last night of April 2014 at the Madison Square Garden Theater. In front of a packed house of more than 2,200 attendees, YouTube execs and partners discussed the world's largest video sharing site, with particular attention paid to the new Google Preferred advertising program.

Google Preferred is YouTube's big plan to drive up advertising revenue on the site. As part of the program, the top 5% of channels across 14 categories have had their advertising space roped off and reserved for advertiser who buy inventory in advance. We revealed a number of the Google Preferred channels earlier in April, and the Brandcast presentation delved further into the top performers across several different genres.

Beyond Google Preferred, the Brandcast presentation also featured YouTube success stories from particular companies and brands. Specifically, PepsiCo CMO Frank Cooper had kind words for YouTube, where his company has run campaigns alongside creators like Mike Tompkins.

-- DreamWorks Animation is expanding its online video presence through a new destination. The film studio will launch DreamWorksTV, a YouTube channel that will host a collection of family-friendly short-form videos.

DreamWorksTV will launch in the summer and will be headed up by Brian Robbins and his AwesomenessTV YouTube network (DreamWorks purchased AwesomenessTV last year for a base price of $33 million.) Robbins will bring to DreamWorksTV the same teen-friendly attitude that he has brought to AwesomenessTV. The channel's initial slate featuring titles like Prank Your Parents and sketch comedy series OMG; these shows represent an attempt to reach YouTube's coveted teenage demographic.

DreamWorks' iconic characters will come to YouTube as well. Short, bite-sized videos catered to mobile videos will populate the channel, with the likes of Shrek and Pus* In Boots making appearances (albeit without their original voice actors).

-- Hulu wants more consumers to notice its lineup of original programs, and it is willing to spend money to make that happen. At its Digital Content Newfronts presentation, Hulu announced its plan to triple its originals budget, with much of the increase going towards marketing.

Hulu's expanded originals budget will cover the second season of shows like The Awesomes, Quick Draw, East Los High, and Deadbeat, as well as upcoming debuts like The Hotwives of Orlando, which will arrive on July 15th. The company's plan is to heavily promote these and other exclusive shows, a plan it already put into place before the release of Deadbeat earlier in April. That show's arrival was buttressed with a slew of ads across billboards, pre-rolls, and several other platforms.

By focusing on its originals, Hulu can help turn viewer focus towards shows that do not require expensive licenses to broadcast online. That said, the site isn't abandoning licensed content, and it brought out Mindy Kaling during its Newfronts presentation to remind attendees that Hulu Plus-which now has more than six million subscribers-is the primary streaming home of The Mindy Project.

-- The presentations at Digital Content Newfronts have dominated online video headlines over the past week, and for those who are not in attendance, DigitasLBi is trying to sum up what the event is all about. The ad agency has debuted a video alongside Collective Digital Studios that, according to its description, "sums up the spirit of the NewFronts."

The video is titled "Fearless", and it encourages advertisers to try out new, different, and offbeat campaigns that might be a little risky. It features a number of Collective DS' YouTuber partners, including Hannah Hart, Dave Days, and Harley Morenstein from Epic Meal Time. There are also references to viral videos, including some of the biggest hits of the past few years. You can probably guess which ones.